Cardiff City captain David Marshall has backed his team's under-fire strikers to get the goals to blaze the Bluebirds up the Championship table.

After failing to score in four straight away games, the Bluebirds are marooned in mid-table and strike pair Federico Macheda and Adam Le Fondre were criticised for missing gilt-edge chances at Birmingham on Saturday.

But their captain, who kept his first clean-sheet since August at St Andrew's, gave them his full backing by saying: “I’m more than confident they will score goals.

“There’s a lot of games to come and we have Kenwyne Jones and Nicky Maynard too. They are good options to have.

“At home they have scored goals and Kiko (Macheda) has been great while Alfie’s (Le Fondre) record speaks for itself.

Adam Le Fondre spurns a golden chance

“We would have loved one of them to have taken a chance during the first-half in particular. They were both getting into good positions and there were four or five good chances. Kiko had a good headed chance in the second-half.

Saturday's result leaves the Bluebirds five points off the play-off places, but Marshall believes the performance at least showed that an away win would arrive sooner rather than later.

“If we play to our best that will come,” he said.

“At Birmingham we had 11 good, solid performances from the players who started. If we play like that again we will earn that away win. We have the quality to move up the table.

“We have been under-achieving in terms of league position, but since the gaffer has come in we are in good form. We are chasing teams because of a poor start to the season, but coming away to Birmingham we can’t be disappointed earning a draw. It’s just the poor start which makes it more important we win away.

“Coming down from the Premier League, it’s difficult to get back up. We have settled as a squad now, the gaffer is in and we have every chance of moving up.”

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It was a much more solid looking defensive performance in the Midlands from the Bluebirds after they shipped three goals in a poor defeat at Bolton on their previous outing. Big centre-half Ben Turner impressed at St Andrew’s in his first start of the campaign following an ankle injury.

Marshall said: “As a team we weren’t good enough defensively at Bolton and we were much improved at Birmingham. It was good to get a clean-sheet after the Bolton game.

“It was a tough game for Ben coming away, his first game back. He tired near the end, but you know what you are going to get from Ben. He was outstanding after being out for so long.

“Birmingham have struggled at home so it seems as though their new manager given them a bit of lift, but we knew that coming in. We had the chances to win game in the first-half, both teams tired then. It was disappointing not to have won, but was probably a good point for us in the end.”

Marshall will now link up with his native Scotland for a Euro 2016 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland and a glamour friendly against England.

After shining for Cardiff in the top-flight last term, the Bluebirds shot-stopper said he was reasonably content with his form so far in the Championship.

Marshal added:. “It was important for me to stay consistent this season. I made saves in a team struggling at Premier League level last season and everybody talked about that, but in this league we are expected to be in the top six. I feel I am playing consistently well. Obviously I am not making as many saves as I did last season, but I knew in my mind that was always going to be the case.”